How Kids Can Create Sketch Maps for the Outdoors

Part art, part geography, a sketch map is a fun way to document a day outdoors with a creative touch. In her geography class, my 10-year-old daughter learned to create a sketch map which is the simplest sort of map kids can create. Based on actual observations, she hand drew a map of her school’s neighborhood with key features and a legend. School buildings, fruit store, bus stop – it had everything and was a cool snapshot of a walk she did around the block with her class. Could anyone do it based an an outdoors activity, I asked. Of course, she answered, it’s easy. And she showed me, turning a recent spring walk into a colorful and detailed sketch map.

If you want to turn family outdoor activities into keepsakes, sketch maps are a great way to remember a fun day out on paper. Here are illustrated steps on how to do one with your kids.

Decide Which Outdoor Activity You Want To Sketch Map

Is it a walk in the park with the family?

A treasure hunt for a birthday party?

A snow day?

A day at the beach to build sand castles?

A Sunday bike ride?

As long as there’s a starting point, en ending point and an activity in between, it’s all good.

For her sketch map, my daughter picked a spring walk at Kew Gardens in London that included an Easter egg hunt, lunch, a treetop walk, wild garlic spotting and playing boomerang. You can see the boomerang in flight in this photo. It took us a while to get it right!

Lay Out The Art Materials

Paper

• Kids will need large size art paper to map.
• A4/US lettersize is great but A3 and larger is preferable.
• If they’re going to use watercolor, watercolor paper is best (it soaks in all the water).
• Otherwise, plain old art paper works with lots of different media.

Coloring/drawing materials

• Pencils are great to sketch the main blocks of the map.
• Watercolor can fill large areas easily.
• Colored pencils, charcoal pencils and markers are all good.
• For borders and hand writing, we like to use fine point markers.
• For fun details, kids can use stickers or collages of magazine illustrations.

Select How Much Space You Need for the Sketch Map

Your kids don’t need to sketch map everything. In my daughter’s case, she left some activities out of the sketch map and decided to center her artwork on the largest Victorian greenhouse where she found the first clues for the Easter egg hunt. She could as well have decided to focus on the lawns where she played boomerang with her sister.

Draw Your Story on the Sketch Map

I love how sketch maps can tell a story by adding place names, details and their relationship, plus notes of the activities of the day. To draw the sketch maps, follow these steps:

• Sketch the roads, trails, buildings and geographical features in pencil.
• Paint in the drawing.
• Outline borders in marker or pen.
• Label the known areas.
• Give a title to the story.
• Add a legend (you can use a separate piece of paper that you glue in a corner) giving explanations with symbols. Those can be figures, shapes, colors or shapes.

• Add cardinal points with an arrow pointing north or a fun compass rose (be creative!).

Additional Map Resources

• Build Excitement for a Disneyland Vacation from Crafty Mama in ME
• How Maps Change Case study: Boston’s Boundaries over time from Boston Kid Friendly
• Map Books for Young Explorers from Brain Power Boy
• Map Skills for Kids from Schooling a Monkey
• Map Books for Children: Intro to Maps from The Jenny Evolution
• Continents and Countries Olympic Sort from Planet Smarty Pants
• Maps Unit for Preschoolers from Bambini Travel
• 3 Free Puzzles to Make Learning the Continents Fun from Books and Giggles
• Geocaching for Kids from Parenting Chaos
• Map Activities for Kids: France, England, Ireland {Printables} from The Natural Homeschool
• Travel Maps for Kids from Craft Create Calm
• Types of Maps from Soil & Water Conservation District from Something 2 Offer
• Around the World Fun for Kids: Exploring Architecture from Artsy Momma
• Using Maps as an Idea for Art Projects from Our Daily Craft
• Making a Salt Dough Map from Tales of Education at Home

Have fun learning about maps and creating your own!